Students reconnect with a culture in Vietnamese class

Every week, nearly three dozen adults pile into a small law office on Brookhurst Avenue to shoot the breeze – in Vietnamese.

The classes include business owners, a Vietnamese rapper, a Fulbright scholar, a German and comedian Dat Phan, winner of NBC's original “Last Comic Standing.”

Some are learning the basics, while others are brushing up on their conversation skills.

But the origins of these classes go beyond a love of language.

Most of these students are English-speaking children of Vietnamese immigrants looking to reconnect with a culture they might have ignored growing up.

As the next generation of Vietnamese Americans comes of age, it's taking leadership roles in the community.

The teacher calls on a student to decipher the heavily accented script. The student squints at the phrase displayed on the flat-screen monitor and then makes an uncertain attempt to translate it.

“Please … on top?”

The classroom shakes with laughter.

“Please watch over me,” the teacher corrects. The phrase is a religious plea to Buddha, he explains.

Now it is another student's turn. She begins to sound out the next expression on the list.

“Fee … pha …” she begins.

“Fo fum!” another student interjects in an ogre's voice. Again, the room is in stitches.

It's Monday night at the TDL International Law Firm, where nearly three dozen professionals meet to learn and practice Viet-namese.

The language group, which has a Facebook page called Let's Learn Vietnamese Weekly, started with just three people in 2011. Today, there are 34 members from across Orange County, including a girl from Australia.

The reasons for learning Vietnamese are many, but most students – the majority of whom are second-generation Vietnamese Americans – are here because they want to reconnect with a cultural heritage they had forgotten or, in some cases, never got to know.

Most of these students' parents immigrated to the United States in the 1970s and '80s and, in an effort to assimilate, failed to pass on their mother tongue to their American children.

Assimilation was a big concern for the first wave of Vietnamese immigrants to Orange County, said Tam Nguyen, president of the Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce. The group encourages its members to improve their language skills so they can communicate better with older Vietnamese business owners.

Nguyen, who is 39 and came to the U.S. when he was 1, said his generation has a different relationship with the United States.

“Clearly assimilation is not the issue. The issue is retaining culture and language,” he said. “Hence the need for language classes.”

Many young Vietnamese Americans don't identify with their cultural identity until they get older, said class facilitator Sophie Tran.

“In high school, it's more about kids blending in,” Tran said. “In college, you start to discover your uniqueness, and you start to embrace that.”

Most of the students are Vietnamese American, but there are a couple of non-Vietnamese students, one of whom is a certified interpreter. Another student, who is half-Vietnamese and rarely spoke Vietnamese growing up, learned to speak in Vietnam while studying on a Fulbright scholarship.

Ken Duong, who hosts the classes at his law firm on Monday nights, said there are Vietnamese actors – including Phan, the comedian – who are interested in starting their own language group in Los Angeles. Duong also is working on setting up a virtual class via webcam.

Duong said one of the best things that has come out of the classes is that everyone is more comfortable speaking Vietnamese with each other outside of class.

“There may have been a stigma growing up that the language is funny. Now, they interact on modern-day social media in Vietnamese and actually type like they speak,” Duong said.

“We joke, we go out, we go see Dat Phan, we watch movies together. … It's become a family of friends that all want to learn Vietnamese.”

‘WE LIVE IN A GLOBAL WORLD'

The origins of the Let's Learn Vietnamese Weekly classes trace back to 2009, when Co Long Pham stepped down as president of the Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce.

Pham started the organization in 1985 and ran it with a tight-knit group of Vietnamese-immigrant business owners.

When Pham left, so did most of the board, making room for a younger group of mostly second-generation Vietnamese leaders, with Nguyen as president.

“It was quite the generational change,” said Nguyen, who, at 35, was 30 years younger than Pham when he took over in 2009. “That change was drastic but necessary for building relationships with the younger generation.”

Nguyen and his cohort might have been more in tune with the younger entrepreneurs who did not share the same anti-communist sentiments that had prevented, and continue to stymie, the development of trade with Vietnam.

But the new board members also were ill-equipped to deal with the still-sizable population of older business owners in the community who were more comfortable speaking Vietnamese, Nguyen said.

Before Pham and his generation retired, 11 of the 13 members of the Vietnamese American Chamber were native Vietnamese speakers. Today, only three are.

Nguyen and the other board members decided to start the Vietnamese classes two years after taking over the chamber.

Their first priority is connecting with the local business community, he said. However, unlike their predecessors, the new board's aspirations reach beyond Orange County.

“We live in a global world,” Nguyen said. “If we want to be a chamber of commerce that is significant, that adds value, we need to try to understand the language and politics within our own community – as well as business opportunities abroad.”

VOICES

“I’m not bad at Vietnamese, but there’s always room for improvement. It’s a good platform for networking and meeting people.”

Paul Le sells life insurance in Alhambra

“I took Vietnamese in grad school and lived in Vietnam for a year and a half. This is a way of keeping it up.”

Ivan Small is a Fulbright fellow and anthropology post-doc at UC Irvine.

“I really want to be more in tune with my culture and learn about Vietnam. This is my first class. I expected more judgmental people due to my lack of Vietnamese, but everyone is very welcoming. I wish I started earlier.”

Billy Keleman is a half-Vietnamese nutritionist in Westminster

“I want to get in touch with my roots. I also work in the mortgage field and it helps me tap into that market. Of course, it works with the ladies.”